The Circus Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Circus Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 22, 2015

Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" (1928) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers for the film; introduction by David Robinson; outtakes; rushes; documentary featuring filmmaker Emir Kusturica; and more. With English intertitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The Beauty and the Tramp

Falsely accused of being a pickpocket, the Tramp runs from the police and hides in a traveling circus. While a persistent cop chases him around, he disrupts a number of different acts and impresses the audience. The circus owner (Al Ernest Garcia, City Lights, Modern Times) immediately recognizes his talent and offers him a job as a property man (!)

Time passes by and the Tramp becomes known as the Funny Man. Because of him, the circus owner makes a ton of money. Realizing that the Tramp is not justly rewarded for his work, the circus owner’s beautiful stepdaughter (Merna Kennedy, Embarrassing Moments, The Gay Buckaroo) encourages him to demand that he is paid fairly. But the Tramp misinterprets her words and instead falls madly in love with her. Later on, when the Tramp overhears a fortune teller telling the stepdaughter that she is going to marry a tall, dark and handsome man, he concludes that they are meant to be together.

Much to the Tramp’s disappointment, however, a handsome tight-rope walker (Harry Crocker, South Sea Love) joins the circus and immediately steals the stepdaughter's heart. The two begin spending time together, and the Tramp finally realizes that she was never in love with him. He becomes so disillusioned that eventually loses his ability to be funny.

Like most of Chaplin’s films, The Circus blends comedy and drama exceptionally well. The Tramp’s relationship with the circus owner's stepdaughter is simple and naive, but at the same time quite touching. The way he looks at her before she meets the tight-rope walker really is quite extraordinary - there is so much admiration, hope and love in his eyes. Then later on when she breaks the Tramp’s heart, there is an entirely new set of emotions on display. He looks enormously hurt, disillusioned and sad.

There is a good dose of sentimentality in the film, but there is a great deal of seriousness as well. Obviously, The Circus is not as far reaching as Modern Times and The Great Dictator, but there are still quite a few effective jabs at modernity in it.

The Circus contains some of Chaplin’s best improvisations - the hall-of-mirrors sequence; the chase sequence inside the circus that attracts the attention of the owner; the wire-walking sequence with the monkeys playing with the Tramp. Chaplin spent hundreds of thousands of hours preparing and filming them to make sure that they are as good as they could possibly be.

Even though The Circus won Chaplin’s first Academy Award - for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus - for years he ignored it. In the late 1960s, however, he finally returned to The Circus to record a new music score for its rerelease. A title song, "Swing Little Girl", was also composed, and though a professional singer was hired to perform it, Chaplin sang it.

*The Circus proved an incredibly difficult film to complete. While Chaplin was working on it, his mother passed away, his studio burnt down, and the IRS claimed that he owned $1 million in back taxes.

The Circus Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Charlie Chaplin's The Circus arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon Artificial Eye.

The release appears to have been sourced from the same MK2 master which Park Circus accessed when they prepared their The Circus of the film, but the encoding here is actually superior. The balance between the blacks and grays, in particular, is much better. The same limitations that are visible on the previous release remain: there are minor scratches, some dirt spots, and some warps and uneven transitions. The bigger issue, however, is the presence of various denoising and sharpening adjustments. Some light grain is visible throughout the entire film, but because of these adjustments the film could look quite uneven at times. Viewers who have the film on DVD will certainly see various improvements, but I have to speculate that eventually a superior master will emerge and there will be a more convincing release on the market. For the time being, however, this is the release of the film to own. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Circus Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0. Obviously, the film comes with English intertitles.

I think that I like the dual mono track a bit better, but the 5.1 track opens up the film a bit better. However, you should not expect to witness a dramatic gap in terms of dynamic intensity. The orchestral score is fairly consistent on both tracks and your viewing experience should equally pleasing regardless of which track you choose. There are no audio dropouts or distortions to report in our review.

The Circus Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction by David Robinson - a short introduction to The Circus by Charlie Chaplin biographer David Robinson in which he quickly notes a few interesting facts from the film's fascinating history. In English, not subtitled. (6 min).

• Chaplin Today: The Circus - an informative documentary focusing on Charlie Chaplin's career and legacy featuring filmmaker Emir Kusturica (Underground, Black Cat, White Cat). In English, not subtitled. (27 min).

• Trailers - two original trailers for the The Circus (the second one from France). Music only. (6 min).

• Outtakes - a collection of outtakes. Silent. (10 min.)

• Rushes from The Circus - a large collection of rushes from The Circus. Silent. (28 min).

• Extracts from the Films in The Charlie Chaplin Collection - (11 min).

The Circus Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Circus won Charlie Chaplin his first Academy Award in 1929. However, the film had an incredibly difficult production history and for years he chose to ignore it. He finally returned to it in the late 1960s to record a new music score for its rerelease. Curzon Artificial Eye's Blu-ray release of The Circus is sourced from the MK2 master which Park Circus accessed in 2010 for their release, but the two releases are not identical. My guess is that eventually there will be a big restoration of this film, but at the moment this is the best home video release that I have seen. RECOMMENDED.